


(Re)Assemble

by calico_fiction



Series: little cuts [13]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Friendship, Gen, Genderfluid Character, Genderfluid Loki (Marvel), Getting Back Together, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Post-Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-26
Updated: 2019-08-26
Packaged: 2020-10-01 20:35:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20397382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calico_fiction/pseuds/calico_fiction
Summary: The Avengers get back together to handle the Loki situation.





	(Re)Assemble

"I'm happy we're all buddies again," Clint says, his miffed tone belying the words. "But you guys know the fuzz still does random checks of this place, right? I'm under house arrest, here."

"Yeah," Natasha confirms. Her voice and mouth are flat, but her eyes dance. She's such a pain in his ass. He misses her every second she's gone. "That's why we had to come here, obviously." She and Steve are in Clint's living room, Nat lounging with exaggerated faux-relaxation in Clint's favorite armchair, and Steve in the middle of the space standing tall and firm the way he always does when serious business is afoot. It's not just them, though - hence the tension in the air. Tony is hovering nervously in the wide doorway towards the kitchen. He's been quiet since he got here. Clint can't really blame him; he's outnumbered.

The front door flies open. There isn't a bang, but Clint definitely locked that behind Tony.

"Sorry we are late!" Thor announces, booming as usual, as he lets himself inside. Natasha's mouth twitches and Clint glares at her until his eyes hurt. Thor is followed inside by Bruce, who was invited, and by a tall and waifish pale skinned woman with dark hair and light green eyes, who was not. She's very familiar. Given what they're all here to discuss, that feeling is pretty uncomfortable.

"Thor. Who is this?" Steve asks. His voice is low and disapproving. He knows the answer as well as any of them do.

"Oh!" says Thor, as if he isn't aware that his little jig is up. "This is my sister." He doesn't give her name, but they all can guess it. She smirks, wiggles her fingers in a smug little wave. Clint owes her an arrow to the eye.

"Not a great one, as far as disguises go," Tony mutters as the three new comers cross the entry hall into the living room. Thor selects a chair as if nothing is wrong, his sister perching delicately on the arm. Bruce stands in between the two of them and Tony and tucks his hands into his pockets, a silent declaration of his personal loyalties.

"This one isn't a disguise," says Loki. There's a long pause while everyone absorbs that, everything out in the air.

"So." Clint is the one to eventually break the silence. "This is awkward." They were expecting to have to pull the truth out of Thor like a rotten tooth, but he just waltzed in with her as his plus one and now they don't know what to do. Given Thor's body language and facial expression, Clint would bet that was calculated. After a few more seconds of stand-off, Thor sighs. He looks weary.

"I understand your caution, and your anger," he says. Clint takes a breath to beg to differ, but Thor's voice is unusually grave. Despite his slumped posture and his avocado printed pajama pants, he manages to seem kingly. And they _were_ allies, almost friends, before he left. Clint holds his tongue, for now. "I would never wish to bring harm upon you, my friends, not of any kind. If you require for your peace that we leave we will go. But if it reassures you any, I do wholly vouch for Loki now."

"I wouldn't exactly call her rehabilitated," Bruce adds in. "But I vouch for her too. She _can_ be fully rehabilitated. She's already done a lot of the hard parts of that on her own."

"Can she speak for herself?" Natasha asks mildly.

"I vouch for me also," Loki answers with a sticky smile.

"Shut up," Clint snaps. Thor's bullshit he can tolerate, but Loki's? Never. Loki falls back into silence obediently, but her smile only grows.

"Any guilt?" Tony demands gustily. He's inched his way closer to everyone else, though he's still holding himself tight into a ball of his own space. Clint feels a little bad about that. Tony seriously fucked up, but to find nothing but enemies among old friends isn't what he deserves. He tries to loosen up his own stance, but he's not sure he has any success at it.

"It comes and goes," Loki demures, making a clearly half-assed attempt to curb her smile and put on a more contrite expression. Clint thinks part of the fun of lies and/or unpleasant truths for her is for it to be obvious to everyone else how much she's enjoying them.

"Megalomaniacal rage?" Tony asks next.

"Redirected into more constructive pursuits," Loki says. Her grin stretches disconcertingly wide. Clint itches for his bow. Tony snorts.

"Unquote," he mutters. He's not wrong. Clint has read that tip in a few self-help books himself. It's Steve's turn to sigh, though he doesn't show his weariness. As far as Clint has had the privilege to see, he never does. He opens his mouth to give the verdict, but then snaps it shut with a glance at Tony.

"We'll take a vote," he says instead. "All in favor of considering Loki, uh, on probation, I guess?" Nat, Bruce, and Thor raise their hands. "In favor of considering Loki an active threat?" Clint puts his hand up, obviously, and so does Steve. Steve looks at Tony, waiting, but Tony only chews on his lip.

"Tony, you didn't vote," Steve says, exasperated, and lets his hand drop.

"I don't know what my opinion is!" Tony exclaims, unfolding enough to gesture frustratedly around at the general situation. "I had a whole reasoned debate and everything, but it came up inconclusive." He pauses, then seems to realize something and cuts Steve a hot glare. "Little hypocritical of you, though, to forgive one villain and not the other." Oh great, here they go.

"Bucky's not a villain," Steve insists. He glares back at Tony just as hard, his stance going even harder, defense mode. "He didn't choose to hurt anyone. Loki did."

"Actually, I think that might not be true," Bruce interjects, effectively cutting into the building tension.

"I think no one asked," Loki snarls, suddenly vicious. It's the two of them glaring at each other now, but whatever silent argument they have Bruce is the one to win it. Loki growls and turns her head away in furious defeat. Bruce watches the side of her face for a moment, apparently thinking through his words carefully, maybe making a compromise with her of his own accord.

"Loki's eyes were blue when we met," is all the further information he reveals, letting them all make whatever inferences they will. Clint chooses, stubbornly, not to make any. Loki is a shapeshifter anyway; it could easily mean nothing.

"House arrest, maybe?" Tony offers after blowing a frustrated breath through his chewed up lips.

"I find that more than a little insulting," Clint sneers, at the same time as Thor points out, "But we have no home."

"I'm fresh outta pity points," Tony says to them both, but Clint knows he's just lashing out because he feels cornered. In actuality, his pity points abound. That's his whole problem. Unfortunately, Clint isn't interested in them. He makes sure to catch Loki's eye to suggest:

"A chaperone." It gives the appearance of a compromise while being something he knows she would hate beyond measure. "Constant supervision." Natasha raises her eyebrows at him, which he sees in his peripheral vision only because he's still staring at Loki. He's sure the two women, if no one else here, can easily read the spite in his eyes. Natasha tips her chin anyway. She doesn't disapprove. She won't begrudge Clint his well deserved pound of flesh, no matter what her own feelings on Loki are. They get each other like that.

"All in favor?" says Steve. All but Bruce and Thor raise their hands this time. "Uh, decided then." Loki puts on another smirk, but with a few days of sharing headspace with her under his belt Clint can see the dread hidden behind it.

"And who gets the dubious honor of that job?" she taunts. She's trying to make it sound like a raw deal, but frankly if he wasn't stuck here another six months Clint would happily take it.

"I pretty much live with Asgard now anyway," Bruce says when no one else speaks up. "I'll do it, if you all still trust me to."

"Of course we still trust you," Steve assures quickly, and Tony comes closer still so that he can clap Bruce on the shoulder. Clint gnashes his teeth at the relief in Loki's shoulders. He trusts Bruce too, but it's not fair that Loki be let off so easily.

"The rest of us can check in periodically," Natasha cuts in quickly before Clint can make a less diplomatic protest. She gives Bruce a brief apologetic glance. "Just to keep updated."

"Thor?" Steve prompts. Thor sighs again and looks to his sister. She looks back. Clint can't read their faces.

"Acceptable," Thor confirms to Steve grudgingly.

"Hey, it's just probation, big guy, like Cap said," Tony consoles. "Temporary, if she passes."

"Am I being detained or can we make our exit?" Loki drawls abruptly. "I tire of hearing myself spoken about."

"That doesn't seem right," Tony quips, and Thor and Bruce both chuckle. Loki glares at Thor, who tucks away his lopsided grin with limited success. She turns and glares at Bruce, who doesn't so much as blink in the face of her ire. She pouts.

"You're free to go," Steve says. Thor and Loki stand and together with Bruce they head out the way they came. If it was Loki who unlocked that door to let them in Clint might still shoot her. He walks them to the door. He stops Loki, his arm blocking her path outside.

"Just so you know," he tells her, his voice casual but ugly. "I'll never forgive you."

"Of course not," Loki scoffs, as if the very notion that he would is preposterous. "Why should you?" She seems genuine, for once. To her, his grudge is a painless given. He doesn't know how he feels about that.

"Until next time," Loki says, a completely neutral statement. She gives Clint a cordial nod, and passes through his arm and out his front door like she's made of colored smoke. Then all three Asgardians - because citizenship aside, Bruce is an Asgardian now - are gone.

Inside, Tony's and Steve's voices rise and fall like ocean waves, the familiar push and pull of the leaders of the Avengers. At least there's that. Whatever happens now, be it Loki or something else, they'll handle it.

Together.

**Author's Note:**

> Come chill with me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/penlex)!


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